DE Blade shoot out Week TwentyFour – Gillete Wilkinson Sword

A few weeks back, I reviewed the Wilkinson sword Blade over Here I thought that this was the “Saloon” but it seems more likely that it was the version manufactured in China. I was not overly impressed with the blade the first time around, so im squeezing in the actual Saloon blade to see how that stacks up. In terms of smooth/sharp, the blade will have much to live upto just having come off a week of feather shaves.

Shave 1: This blade gave a very smooth shave, It was not quite as smooth as the feather… but very comfortable, no pulling or tugging. The blade is nice and sharp, and to me, it was quite mild. Regardless of the mildness, the save BBS close, and was easy to achieve too. Id found with the feather that Alum was a lot more stingy than usual, and with this blade, it was a complete opposite experience. The blade was also pretty forgiving, I had a few spots that were a bit sensitive after all the nicks and cuts from the feather, but I managed to pass over all but one of them without opening old wounds.

Shave 2: The second shave from this blade was another good shave, and for all intents, a carbon copy of the first. I was still enjoying the more forgiving nature of the blade, and the experience required less concentration than I was putting into the feather shaves. Again the shave was smooth, without any pulling or tugging. I had 3 passes without any nicks or weepers, and no irritation or razor burn. The result was BBS again.

Shave 3: Something about this blade seems to have gotten better with the third shave, but it may have been subconscious, because I was feeling comfortable with the blade. There was no deterioration I could discern, the shave was smooth and comfortable, with no pulling or tugging, and the blade dispatched any facial hair with ease. The blade was still feeling mild and forgiving, but giving a BBS result.

Shave 4: This was another good shave, the blade gave a smooth comfortable shave with no pulling or tugging, it may have started to feel just a bit less sharp than it had been, but that hadn’t made the blade any less comfortable. the shave ended with no irritation of razor burn, and no nicks or weepers. And the customary BBS result.

Overall (TLDNR)I was quite surprised by the difference in performance between this blade and the previous review, but the Indian made Saloon Wilkinsons are in my opinion definitely a superior blade to the Chinese version. This blade gave 4 terrific shaves, while only showing the slightest signs of deterioration over 4 shaves. While the feather was the ultimate in smoothness and sharpness, I preferred this blades overall performance by a considerable margin. It was plenty sharp, smooth and mild. And still gave a perfectly BBS shave. This is definitely one of my favorites of all the tests so far.